I particularly enjoy reading books that are interesting and enjoyable while reading and leave me with new ideas to consider. The Attack by Yasmina Khadra fits this model perfectly. It is the story of an Israeli of Bedouin descent, Dr. Amin Jaafari. He is a successful and widely renown surgeon with a beautiful and beloved wife, Sihem. He and his wife have made every effort to assimilate into upper-middle class Tel Aviv life. They live in one of the nicer neighborhoods, have friends throughout society, take annual overseas vacations and generally live what appears to be a charmed life. Neither of them are religious. Dr. Jaafari is a dedicated healer who had taken as his personal motto his father's teaching that there is nothing more important than his own life, yet his life is no more valuable than anyone else's (p. 40) Then one day he is kept late at work dealing with victims of a terrorist attack and returns home to discover that his wife is late returning from a visit to her grandmother. He's asked to return to the hospital, where his boss and a police friend break the news to him that she was killed in a terrorist attack and evidence shows that his wife was the suicide bomber, not a victim.
The novel examines the repercussions of this single act of terrorism by following Dr. Jaafari's shock, denial, grief, and quest for understanding. The response of the community and the Jaafari's friends and neighbors are shown through their effects on Dr. Jaafari's life. Dr Jaafari's grief process leads him to explore what leads someone down the path of terrorism and to believe that their death and the death of others is a positive step. His investigation into his wife's last days also lead him to a reunion with the extended family he had left behind to become a surgeon and modern Israeli citizen. Dr Jaafari reflects on how thin the line between tragedy and triumph can be and how even when one turns their back on hatred, it still effects you.
The Attack is an amazing book that I will be continuing to reflect on for a long time. It has done more to help me understand terrorism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict than any non-fiction or news story I've ever read. I'm looking forward to reading more of Moulessehoul's work.
Yasmina Khandra is a pseudonym of Mohammed Moulessehoul. Moulessehoul was an officer in the Algerian army and published author of both fiction and non-fiction, when he decided he needed the anonymity of a pseudonym to avoid the self-censorship and required military review of his dual careers. He choose a female name out of deep respect and admiration for his country women. When he retired from the military and moved his family to France to write full-time, Moulessehoul took credit for his work and continues to write under the name Yasmina Khadra.
Books by Mohammed Moulesseh
Yasmina Khadra's Official Website (in French) English Translation via Google Language Tools
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